Metal oxide particles have found widespread applications in industry. For example, in the semiconductor industry, metal oxide particles have been used as abrasives in polishing compositions. Metal oxide particles also have been used in the preparation of coating compositions, such as paints, and in the production of ink recording media.
Various methods have been disclosed for the production of metal oxide particles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,322,499 (Carpenter et al.) discloses a method for the production of pyrogenic metal oxide particles by high-temperature oxidation of volatile metal compounds, such as metal halides or oxyhalides. While such processes yield metal oxide particles of satisfactory quality, they often involve expensive post-production treatment steps, such as removing the acid that results from the combustion of the halogenated feedstock.
Thus, a need exists for a process for the production of metal oxide particles that does not involve costly and complicated pre- and post-production treatment steps. A need also exists for metal oxide particles having a relatively small aggregate size and/or a relatively narrow aggregate size distribution. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.